How would a $500 boost benefit seniors, the disabled, and military veterans?

November 6, 2015

First, it was announced that there was to be no cost of living increase for the nation’s seniors, disabled, or military veterans last month because of lower gas prices. Now, Elizabeth Warren wanted to make up for this discrepancy by giving all of them $500. This blogger wondered if this was a snare like Papa Bush’s tax credit, he gave and taxed everyone for the next year? Let’s hope not, for her sake.

Personally, this writer would like to know what formula was used in calculating everyone’s monthly amount. If they were still using figures from when they were created back in 1935, they were way out of date. My answer was a whole lot of doublespeak when this was asked about on the Social Security main line about five years back. In other words, they didn’t know. Ms. Warren was right about one thing. The legislative branch had done a horrible job in seeing to this situation. The cost of living increase was based on the rise in prices overall, or inflation, not a drop in gas prices.

Warren thought the formula that determined everyone’s monthly check was incorrect because it didn’t adequately reflect the spending habits of the nation’s seniors. In spite of the availabiity of Medicare RX, there were a whole lot of seniors and the like still couldn’t afford their medications because they didn’t qualify. AARP was a great program, if one was able to pay a monthly fee.

This blogger also felt the pain of the two year freeze, Obama put on us in 2012 and only offered 1.7% of the 3% increase afterward. That little bit of money barely covered my monthly expenses. The $300 stimulus money before that only improved my fledgling savings account for a very short while. At least two of my friends at church didn’t get to benefit from the stimulus money because their parents didn’t see the value in it.

To offset the cost of this bill, they were going to close a supposed ‘tax loophole” that allowed businesses to write off performance-based compensation. This was something that the Republican-controlled Congress wouldn’t allow. The large amount of money, more than the 3% across the board, was more like four per cent. Someone had to suffer somewhere and that was how Ms. Warren wanted it. Until this bill was passed, no one should believe it.